I think of language as our first music.

It took me 14 years to write poems about Vietnam. I had never thought about writing about it, and in a way I had been systematically writing around it.

Poets are seen as the caretakers of language, so working with words no matter what the form is what we do.

Through the years I have seen myself as a peaceful person, but the awareness of the anger is part of that process.

Students often have such a lofty idea of what a poem is, and I want them to realize that their own lives are where the poetry comes from. The most important things are to respect the language; to know the classical rules, even if only to break them; and to be prepared to edit, to revise, to shape.

We have to embrace the good over the bad. That has to be one's personal project.

I said that love heals from inside.